Marines on standby as rebels fear chemical weapon attack

HERO Royal Marines were on alert yesterday to head to Libya to prevent dictator Colonel Gaddafi committing war crimes against his own people.

As a second evening of air raids began, Britain was playing a major role in the coalition effort to neutralise the Libyan despot’s war machine.

The Colonel Gaddafi government claimed last night that it had instructed its armed forces to observe a ceasefire from 7pm GMT – but the same announcement on Friday was breached within hours.

Military chiefs fear a rapid reaction force may be needed to go in on humanitarian grounds if the Libyan leader orders his henchmen to commit atrocities against his own civilians.

A big concern among military chiefs is over Gaddafi’s stockpile of chemical weapons – including deadly mustard gas.

They are concerned he could unleash such weapons if he fears he is about to be ousted in a popular uprising.

It is true, there can’t be an occupation force

Foreign Secretary William Hague

United States Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said of the mustard gas worries: “We’re watching very closely. He does have a store of that, a significant quantity. It’s something he could do a lot of damage with.”

There have been widespread reports that British SAS troops and other special forces teams have been in Libya for weeks, liaising with rebel groups.

Now an officer from 40 Commando, based at Norton Manor Camp, Taunton, Somerset, has revealed his men have been put on notice to leave for North Africa by the end of the week. The elite corps took heavy losses during their last tour in Afghanistan, returning to Britain only in October after a six-month tour.

The source, an unnamed senior commando, added: “A large number of commandos have just left for Afghanistan for another tour there. So we are the available ones for Libya if required.”

The Marines could be stationed on either of two British warships off the Libyan coast, HMS Westminster or HMS Cumberland – or even on ships such as France’s carrier Charles de Gaulle.

Last night coalition bombers encountered heavy anti-aircraft fire as they began a second night of attacks. Large explosions were reported across Tripoli while smoke was seen rising from near Gaddafi’s presidential palace.

A Libyan spokesman last night claimed its armed forces had been ordered to follow a ceasefire despite facing “barbaric armed aggression”.

He said: “We, the Popular Social Leadership of Libya, recommend to the armed forces to announce an immediate ceasefire to all military units.”

Earlier, in a rabid telephone interview broadcast on national TV, Gaddafi vowed to fight a “long war” to protect his homeland.

From an unknown location, he said: “We will not leave our oil to America or France or Britain or the enemy Christian states that are aligned now against us.

“We will not leave our land. We will fight for every inch of our land and liberate every inch of it.

“Now the arms depots have been opened and all the Libyan people are being armed.”

He claimed the leaders of Britain, France and the US were acting like fascist dictators and would “fail like how Hitler failed, Napoleon failed, Mussolini failed”. He added: “All tyrants fall under the feet of the people.” Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague acknowledged the possibility of non-occupying ground troops moving into Libya, which he claimed would not breach the terms of the UN resolution.

He said: “It is true, there can’t be an occupation force. It doesn’t exclude every type of operation, but we don’t have involvement of ground forces at the moment.”

Prime Minister David Cameron, who declared the action “legal and right”, held a Cobra meeting last night in London for senior ministers and military commanders to assess the situation.

In Libya, Gaddafi described the continuing air strikes against him as terrorism, claiming 64 people had been killed by the overnight bombardment.

Libyan state television showed footage from an unidentified hospital of what it called victims of the “colonial enemy”.

Admiral Mullen said the no-fly zone over Libya was effectively in place and he had seen no reliable reports of civilian casualties from the coalition strikes.

In the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, the cruise missiles unleashed on Saturday by RAF Tornado GR4 fast jets and a Royal Navy Trafalgar-class submarine during the coalition onslaught, were welcomed by relieved civilians. Civil servant Khalid al-Ghurfaly, 38, said: “We salute France, Britain, the US and the Arab countries for standing with Libya. But we think Gaddafi will take out his anger on civilians. So the West has to hit him hard.”

The Tornados armed with Stormshadow cruise missiles, accurate to just a few feet, flew from RAF Marham in Norfolk on a 3,000-mile round-trip mission – the longest since the Falklands.

They moved yesterday with a number of RAF Typhoons to the Gioia del Colle airbase in southern Italy – just 30 minutes from the Libyan mainland.

The Tornado strikes on “high-value targets” in Tripoli and other areas came after French aircraft fired the first shots, destroying tanks and armoured vehicles near Benghazi.

US and British warships and submarines launched 124 Tomahawk missiles against air defences around Tripoli and Misrata, US military officials said.

They said US forces and planes were working with Britain, France, Canada and Italy in operation Odyssey Dawn.

Aircraft from other countries, including Denmark and Arab League member Qatar, were also moving near Libya to participate in the operation.

Among the thousands who were evacuated in Libya was the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Al Megrahi.

The 58-year-old was moved from his family home in Tripoli to a secure unit.

Labour leader Ed Miliband supported the Government’s action and paid tribute to the “exceptionally brave and courageous” British forces.